A report, produced by The National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC), for the Association of Colleges (AoC).

The broad context for this work is the general agreement across political partners and society that adults who are settling and settled in this country need good English language skills. This short piece of research took place in the context of a period of change for ESOL qualifications in England, in which proposed changes to funding for ESOL from September 2013 and the new qualifications and funding for 2014 were causing concern.

Executive Summary are summarised under the following headings:

• Extreme diversity - one size does not fit all
• Learners at the lowest levels - the need for smaller steps
• Use of non-regulated provision
• Jobcentre Plus (JCP)
• Qualifications
• Initial assessment
• Funding / time to learn
• Main Recommendations
• Smaller steps
• Resource to follow learner need
• ESOL programmes to meet the needs of JCP clients